The GoodBelly Blog

Mallory Weggemann’s Journey of New Mobility

Sep4

Mallory Weggemann had her life changed on January 21, 2008. A routine epidural to help treat back pain left the college freshman paralyzed from the waist down. However, having been a competitive swimmer since the age of seven, she found one thing unchanged – her love for swimming. On April 8, 2008, Mallory returned to the pool, and has been breaking national and world records ever since. Mallory holds 15 World Records & 33 American Records, was 2011’s ESPN ESPY winner for Best Female Athlete with a Disability and was named USA Swimming’s Disabled Swimmer of the Year in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

We are honored to call Mallory a friend and wanted to share her story with you. Read on for Mallory’s story in her own words and visit Mallory’s Indiegogo page to see how you can support her journey of new mobility. (Even $1 makes a difference, but every donation of $25 or more comes with free GoodBelly!)

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$100 – 1 Month of Free GoodBelly!*

$500 – 2 Months of Free GoodBelly!*

$1000 – 3 Months of Free GoodBelly!*

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$7500 – 1 Year of Free GoodBelly!*

It has been nearly six years since I was paralyzed, I was just 18 years old when it happened, two months shy of my 19th birthday, and everything changed. I walked into a clinic to receive an epidural injection to help treat back pain and I never walked out. It was as simple as that. In the blink of an eye my entire world changed. Everything I knew, the past 18 years of my life, it all changed and I had no idea what to expect moving forward. My future was full of uncertainty more then ever before. Then slowly but surely I started to move forward and started to relearn how to live.

I went from 18, and what I would call stubbornly independent, to 18 and paralyzed and unable to be stubbornly independent. I was suddenly dependent on people, a wheelchair, and a bucket of medication. I celebrated my 19th birthday in a wheelchair and taking more medication than I ever imagined possible. I didn’t feel like me and I certainly didn’t feel like I was just 19 years old.

When I was discharged from the hospital in March of 2008, I was confined to four wheels, and that wasn’t all. I had a bucket, and when I say bucket, I mean bucket, of medications that my body was dependent on. I was in an incredible amount of pain from the epidural itself, I had built up scar tissue and a blood clot in my arm from a blown IV, and most of all, my body didn’t work the way it did two months prior. I went from standing to sitting all the time and that took a toll on my body. My stomach didn’t have the ability to normally digest a meal. I was in constant discomfort when I tried to eat. Long and short of it is that I had to take a “meal” of medications, including prescription probiotics along with many other medications, before and after each meal just for my body to handle eating. I was on pain medication from all of the pain that I was in and I was giving myself daily shots to help protect me from blood clots. I had what felt like a pharmacy by my bedside with a chart that told me what medications I needed to take and when I needed to take them.

I did this for a few months and then all of a sudden things started to change for me. In April of 2008, I got back in the water for the first time and about a month after returning to the pool I started to realize my body was less and less dependent on all of those medications. Things started to run a bit more normal, my stomach started tolerating meals better and I didn’t constantly feel sick. All because of one small decision, to get in the pool every day and swim. Now, don’t get me wrong, swimming wasn’t a magic wand. I still had issues with back pain and eating, but they were manageable and best of all, manageable without a bucket of medication. Medications that I was determined to find a way to stop taking because with each medicine came a side effect and the side effects in and of themselves make you feel sick. I wanted to find a way to naturally take care of my body, without having to take various different medications.

Throughout the years I had my ups and downs with things since my paralysis, but never to the extent of when I was first paralyzed. Sure, I deal with things that are just part of the deal as a paraplegic, like kidney infections and various different things. I have come to learn that is just part of being paralyzed, but there are ways to help manage those issues and the main one that I have found as of late are probiotics, and not prescription probiotics like I was accustomed to after my paralysis. I have started drinking GoodBelly, which is a dairy free probiotic, and quite honestly an ingenious concept. Since drinking my daily serving of GoodBelly these past few months, I have realized that not only does swimming make me feel healthy, but also pairing it with probiotics is a game changer for how my body feels and functions on a daily basis.

As someone who has been paralyzed for nearly 6 years and who has battled Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for nearly 8 years, it is crucial that I take care of my body by not only by being physically active, but being conscious of what I put into my body, as well.

It is a daily challenge that I think all of us have and one that is a game changer when you take the time to focus on.

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